Chapter 56 part 3

Salem Pov

I continued just sitting beside Kagura as she basically snuggled into my tails while letting out some of her pent-up emotions for four like six minutes now.

I don't know the specifics of what happened in her battle with Kage but I could tell it was a bit mentally draining for her. Mixed with that just happened here she must be really going through and since she just killed some from what I could assume was her first time.

Now I wasn't sure what the morality of the light side of the fairy tail cast was and if they had a no kill rule or not. They seem like they do but then again I'm pretty sure I've seen Natsu absolutely crush out on a whole army incinerating them but then again I could be wrong and he just knocked them out.

"Are you feeling better now?" I asked.

"A little thanks and I apologize that my emotions got the better of me." She got up but flinched while clutching an ice sealed wound.

"It's alright sometimes you need to let things go or at least that's what my sister always tried to force me to." I help her keep on her feet. "Hey take it easy boss lady I didn't use healing magic for that." 

"Your sister." She mumbled then turned to me. "Salem please tell me when you first killed someone how did it feel for you?"

 I began reflecting on the two people I've killed so far. "The first time I killed someone I really didn't intend to but I rationalized that the man probably deserved it because he and his team were responsible for the death of an imperial man taking a man away from his family, leaving his wife, children, father and friends. But looking back at it I didn't know the Oni-Dragon member so he must have had someone waiting for him or a loved one somewhere but who knows in the he chose the wicked path which really has no happy ending.

The second time was a woman who stole people's life force to give herself a makeover so when I killed her the only thing in my mind was good riddance.

But at the end of day even if I reason with it I still took a life and will probably again. That's going to stick with me forever, be it positively or negatively."

"I see." She looked down.

"Oh finally done." Morrigan was in the air, wings out just floating there while eating red glowing peaches. "I watched your little fight junior and I have to say I'm pretty disappointed. You were sloppy and looked like you needed more training~." She lightly mocked. 

"I hope you get a stomach ache or cursed with those peaches." I sucked my teeth at her getting me a peach seed to the forehead. "Ow nfithi (witch)."

"Too bad for you, it's something I can handle." She winked and flew down to us and roughly patted my head and turned to Kagura. "So I heard that was your first time killing a little girl."

"Yes and I still don't know what to feel about it." Kagura responded a bit quietly.

"Meh you'll get over it. Alright honey but here let me help fix my students' sloppy attempt at medical assistance." She placed her hand on the ice, melting it, making Kagura flinch and it glowed. "There you go, not the best but this should be enough for now though I'm not a healer so you're going to have to get that checked out." 

"Mhm." She just nodded turning towards Arashi's detached head deep looking really in thought.

"You alright Kagura?" I asked and she seemed to snap out of her daze.

"Um yeah I'm fine and I know this is going to be strange but do you think you can help me bury him." Morrigan and I looked at each other and shrugged.

"Yeah why not."

"Thank you." She bowed her head and moved towards Arashi's head while we went to grab his body.

"So Junior about that kitsune form of yours what's the story behind it?" asked Morrigan

"I got it from a fox goddess. Pretty cool right." I whistled and she just sighed.

"Only you Salem. Only you."

"AAAAHH!!" I heard Kagura scream and I quickly turned to her to be greeted by the sight of her trying to get Arashi's mask off her face.

"SHIT KAGURA!" I ran to her side and tried to get the mask on her but it was stuck on her face and wouldn't get it off without ripping her face off. " DAMN CURSED MASK! MORRIGAN MIND HELPING ME OUT HERE!"

"Right move." Morrigan knelt beside Kagura and her hand began to glow purple when a magic circle appeared beneath her. 

"Geez what the hell, what kind of curse was on that mask?" I asked whilst checking on Kagura.

"It had a demon inside it or was cursed with demonic essence at least. So it latched on her and tried to corrupt her soul and likely take over her body but the girl seemed to have been tough enough to fight back."

"So did you get rid of it?"

"No I sort of just sealed it similar to what I did with you with that giant winged serpent but I did a bit of a sloppy job so it would be better if Harumi looked into it." She finished explaining while looking in the booming sky and the winds roughly blew.

"Speaking of Harumi, it looks like things are getting crazy up there. Don't you think you should go help?"

"Nah she'll be fine Harumi isn't one of the four Keys for nothing so she can handle a punk who loaned out a demon king's power."

"Guess you have a point." I looked up and felt what I assumed was Inari up there along with other presences which again felt a bit familiar but I couldn't put a finger on it. "Hey you felt that."

"Hey the first one feels more divine while the recent one felt more angelic. I haven't felt something like that since Bellum." She scratched her chin but shrugged it off. "Anyways grab your little girlfriend and keep her safe. I'll cut down that tree~."

I lifted kagura bridal-style and I got to say it felt kind of nice to do it. Bringing out my wings we left to the tree's position to finish the job on it but it didn't go down without a fight as it sent out a horde of monsters our way. But not long Morrigan quickly defeated all of them and managed to slice it in half so I sent it out to Morpheus.

After we were done the Island itself began to fall from the sky making the both of us take the air as we just watched the island heavily crash into the waters.

"Good thing I was done before you sent that thing away." commented Morrigan.

"So what did you steal from that temple?"

"What me! Why was I never Junior? Could you accuse me of such a thing!?" She dramatically spoke and I could but laugh a bit. "But you're right I did take a few things to decorate my place and sell for a huge some at the hunters guild."

"Wait, hold on, you had a house all this time!?" She roughly ruffled my hair, shutting me up but an annoyed growl escaped my mouth. 

"Oh stop being so dramatic you big baby that's my thing." She chuckled. "Now let's get out of here, don't you have a dragon to slay too?" 

"Yeah you're right and enough with the hair already what's ." I used my cat tail to slap her hand away but my hair covered my eyes and fixed it with my tail. "But shouldn't we drop to the same place more safe to take care of her injuries like Harumi's place?" 

"Huh I hate babysitting." She mumbled while rubbing her eyes a bit. "Okay, give her to me since I'm faster. I won't take that long to meet you there." 

"Alright don't drop her." I handed over Kagura to her then she quickly rocketed causing a light sonic boom. "Now lets see here." I brought out my phone to check the directions of the and quickly flew towards the city.

12 minutes later

I arrived in the city but as soon as I arrived I dodged a lightning blast which led to the destruction of an entire city block. I saw some more blasts with different magical attributes but before they could do more damage they got sucked into a portal of sorts and they reappeared by the port where the eight headed Orochi fired blasts of different attributes everywhere. So I activated my owl eyes to get a clear view of the battle.

It was MUCH bigger than I thought it would be but and it was engaged in a battle with a giant white nine-tail fox with white fur, a beautiful woman with red-hair blazing feathery wings and talons giving off the image of phoenix, and a purple haired man with purple who was the one responsible for all the portal stuff which kind of reminded a bit of what Minato did teleporting the tailed beast bomb.

"Inari?" I questioned as I eyed the giant Kitsune in surprise since I just sensed her presence in Harumi's battle but remembering that my Kistune form comes from her then she must have just cloned herself. 

After flying to a more safe zone in the sky to observe the battle trying to find anything which would help me figure out anything to take it down. The battle wasn't really going their way.

But looking around I saw some imperial knights capturing what I could assume were Oni-Dragon members along with men with wings and large noses flying down and taking them away and they also helped some people who were trapped in high buildings. Some turned my way and just ignored me?

'So that's what tengu looks like.' My curiosity ended when I dodged a large green ball which melted three large then story buildings causing my eyes to widen in horror and it was a good thing there weren't people in there.

"Damn but I could have been worse off if their surprise attack happened." I mumbled at what I was witnessing. My eyes wandered to the right seeing Morrigan just floating there beside me. "Wow you weren't kidding when you said that you won't take any time." 

"What can I say, I'm a woman of my word~." She chuckled and turned to the Orochi. 

"I don't know who you're lying to me or yourself. So how's Kagura doing though?"

"My~ I've never seen you this worried about someone before~. But don't worry your little winter girlfriend will be fine. Some of Harumi's maids are stabilizing her." She waved off and turned to the battle. "You know when I woke up this morning I didn't think I would be watching a fox goddess, Phoenix-girl and spatial mage fighting a giant eight-headed dragon thing."

"Hn." I turned my attention back to the battle trying to find something to take it down.

"Alright what's the matter, no plan?"

"I was trying to think of the best way to take this thing down but I got nothing." Rubbing my hair in frustration doing a lightning blast which destroyed some city blocks. "And don't think that spatial magic can keep the damage on the low any longer."

"Hm so this one is unfamiliar territory for you huh you. This sort of reminds me of that six story hydra I fought in Bellum in the temple of Artemis." She rested her arms on my head much to my annoyance. "So junior, what have you noticed about this thing so far?"

"Well each of its eight heads has a different element and they have an elemental weakness. It has some great regeneration capabilities but whenever that spatial mage up there sends its attack back to it the regeneration slows down so at least I know if I hit it with a high dose my dragon slayer it would be effective."

"Huh did you notice anything about its mannerisms or anatomy?"

"What is it like to spot a weak spot well…" I scratched my cheek trying my hardest to notice something but nothing but she moved my head downwards. "Hey watc…" She put her finger on my mouth silencing. 

"Shh, let your beautiful sensei guide you~. Now focus on the water and tell me what you discover. Also don't just use your eyes for this." 

I raised my eyebrow at this but followed her instructions and narrowed my eyes focusing on the water from which it. Now focused on sensing its magic and felt something coming from the water.

"Oh I see you think that might be it's weak point?" 

"Probably yes and no but in my experience weird points in a body are usually a weak point like 75 percent of the time." She shrugged.

"Meh works for me like my dad always told me 75 percent." I accepted but an explosion basically destroyed multiple city blocks causing me to flinch. We should probably finish this fast while the city is still in one piece.

 "Looks like the defenders are losing some steam." Morrigan pointed out and I saw the phoenix woman get hit with a sonic blast slamming her into multiple buildings. "Let's go see if she's still alive."

We flew to the crash site and saw the woman laying in the wreckage of the building but had fire covering some parts of her body which looked to be healing a little bit.

The purple haired man suddenly teleport-ed in front of us protectively looking a little worse for wear. He was bleeding, his clothes burnt, and torn and looked really winded as he heard his heavy breaths.

"Who are both of you and what business do you have on this battlefield!" He demanded as his glare hardened.

"Wow they're short and angry, we're not here to fight and besides I don't think you have the energy to take at least one of us on~." teased Morrigan and I saw his eyes twitch a little bit at the short comment but turned towards the woman she groaned.

"Wha… Sato, what's going on? How are those two." questioned the woman while struggling to get up. "Argh d-dammit my ears are still ringing." 

"That's what I want to know." The guy named Sato turned back to us as his hands glowed purple. "I don't like repeating myself when I am two."

"Easy were mages Harumi Raiden hired from Ishagar to help take care of… Um well that." I raised my hands.

"Wait, are you both Morrigan and Salem?" the lady named Seraphina questioned. 

"At your service dear~/Hello there~." We both cheekily smiled but the guy kept looking at us suspiciously like we owed him money or something.

"You can ease Sato-kun. I can assure you Salem-chan will be a great ally for this situation." The astral projection turned towards me and smiled. "Hello Salem-chan it's lovely to see you again and…" When her eyes landed on Morrigan, Inari's expression changed to a bit of a stern one. "First, that dragon is now the infamous daughter of that depravity goddess. What brought you to my land, Umbra Witch?"

"I'm just here for a job nothing more I mean no harm~." explained Morrigan and even though she has her usual eccentric expression I've known her enough to know she was a bit tense. 

"Lets just quickly move on

. So Salem-chan I assume you have a plan to save my beloved country?" Inari switched her tone while changing the subject. 

"Well so and so." 

I brought out the sword I took from Arashi but it still had his severed hand causing me to cough and chuckle awkwardly as they gave me weird looks while separating the sword the arm then threw the limb away. "Um ignore that. Anyway, here's the deal: this sword over here has the special ability to absorb ethernano and magic, so all I have to do is to absorb a huge amount of ethernano and land a proper strike on the possible weak point we found on it down there."

Morrigan looked at the sword more than at me, raising her eyebrow. "The blade you stole from Crimson Typhoon. Do you even know how to use this thing." 

"Don't worry I got this, I mean who could it be?" I waved it off and she just sassily shook her head.

"Crimson Typhoon's katana huh? And where exactly are you planning on getting that amount of ethernano and more importantly how do you plan on keeping that thing still long enough to hit it?" This question from Sato caused me to tap my cheek a bit though.

"Yeah I have no idea on that part. I was just going to make it up as I go." This caused Morrigan to laugh a little while facepalming. 

The man's stoic face turned to an annoyed one. "That is not a plan. That is just pure reckless stupidity."

Seraphina crossed her arms under her chest and smirked a little bit. " I like your style Salem but this is a bit of a bold move. Are you sure you can handle it though?" 

"Please tell me your kidding? Are you really going along with this?" He looked at her with a deadpan expression.

"I can offer you the power you need to deliver the attack but since I'm just a clone so I wont be in this world anymore once I do though that will leave all to handle the dragon on your own." spoke Inari.

"Don't worry Inari-sama, I can still fight Sato and I can handle it right?" Seraphhina winked while putting an arm around his shoulder.

"This is just idiotic." He sighed in frustration but raised his hands. "Alright but how are we going to keep the beast still to land the finishing blow?"

Morrigan rested her arm on my head and spoke up. "Leave that to me. I can keep still about 2 minutes though so you better work fast and not miss Junior~."

We heard Inari's fox form howl in pain as it was overwhelmed by the multiple heads as they all began to bombard it with their attacks.

"Shit come on tough guy we got a distraction to do!" Seraphina quickly grabbed Sato by the collar ignoring his protests then jumped off the roof spreading phoenix flying fast into the fight.

I couldn't be a bit amazed at her phoenix look, imagining how I would look if I had a phoenix form but was taken out of my daze by Inari. 

"Salem-chan before we start I need to launch a long range attack aiming for the sky ." Inari pointed in the direction she needed the attack to go.

"Um why." I raised an eyebrow at the weird request.

"As you know another battle is happening in the sky with the one you call Ryuzen facing off against the original, Harumi and recently a paladin has joined the fight and currently we are zipping around the country. But despite having only what I can assume is 65% of demon king Yamato's power the battle does not seem to be going anywhere and it seems like Yamato is slowly taking over that fool's body so the attack will help out with the battle."

"Wait, if I launch the attack that way, how are you going to make sure it hits? I thought the fight was happening far away?"

"Ara~ Ara~ You don't worry I have a plan for that~."

"That's very particular I'm pretty sure with Harumi and yourself teaming up against him you should have taken him down." voiced Morrigan.

"Yes indeed but I transferred a good amount of power to this clone in-order to face off against the dragon plus Umbra witch I'm pretty sure you are aware why deities can't fully manifest in this world especially in this situation." 

"Hm oh right it looks like I should get to work as well. You better not miss Junior~."

Morrigan brought out her dark feather wings and took off.

"Alright Salem-chan it's good luck and make sure to slay that beast in my name~." The astral projection disappeared. 

The great fox then disappeared in a steam of light direct landing on the katana which absorbed all of the magic causing me to grit hard struggling to keep it stable and the sword was quickly cracking.

"O-Okay" this is a lot tougher than I thought!." Gritting my teeth as the power and the sword began to change becoming larger being made of pure ethernano but was still cracking.

"SALEM!" I heard Morrigan yell and I looked up seeing the Orochi was being held up in the sky by multiple dark chains ranging from its heads to its body. "You can admire my amazing powers later just finish it before it breaks out. This overgrown reptile is a lot stronger than I thought!" The Orochi began struggling firing every trying desperately to escape.

Taking in a heavy breath digging my feet into floor causing it to crack while transforming into my hybrid Teostra form flying towards the Orochi making a sonic boom lightly destroying roof than poured my dragon slayer magic in it and the sound of dragons began to come from it becoming insanely hot, glowing bright blue like a Jedi lightsaber with mini explosions surrounding it like stars.

Focusing on the spot I had a different feeling about it but it gave me a slight sense of dread from it which I ignored for now.

"EXPLODING FIRE DRAGON'S SECRET ART: SCORCHING HEAVENS FANG!" 

Roaring on top of my voice unleashing a colossal flaming crescent towards the weak spot but it was so powerful the that despite being in my dragon form my hands actually got burnt, the sword got destroyed and knocking out of my Teostra from causing me to fall towards the water but Morrigan caught me. 

"Awe~. Don't worry junior I remember you can't I got you~." She spoke in a mocking baby tone.

" 'Tsh' Man, just what is wrong with you today? Is all that smoking getting to you?" I sucked my teeth in embarrassment. I still had enough power for bird forms or sea-serpent.

The attack stretched to the stormy clouds splitting them apart for as far as I could see making me look at it in awe.

"Eh koma ada." My native language slipped out while looking at the scene in awe. Now I sort of know who people from one piece felt when they saw scenes like this. 

"RAAAAHHHHH!"

A very loud demonic scream in pain snapped me out of my stupor also scaring me a bit and so I guess Inari's plan for the attack to strike Ryuzen worked but just who did she manage to get him in the spot to get hit by it though. 

"Is it finally over?" I heard Sato's exhausted voice as the roughed up Seraphina flew beside him, holding him by the shoulders. He looked completely drained and tired.

"I got to say Salem was pretty incredible. I never would have thought you were a dragon slayer. Maybe you and I should go a couple spar rounds sometime after this." said Seraphina

"It's not over yet." I looked at Morrigan clearing my throat. "You mind flying me down there, there's something in that thing's heart." Pointing at its visible heart as the body began to glow. Just why am I still letting her hold me like this?

She flew towards the beheaded Orochi and I morphed my cat tail to pull out a really beautiful looking straight black katana with a red estern dragon-like design on it and I heard a Morrigan cat call it.

After quickly putting in my inventory I brought out my phone and began to absorb the disappearing anomaly but it was taking longer and brighter than the others .

"Wow." I heard Seraphina mumble as the phone finally finished sending it to Morpheus.

The phone then began to glow blue and flew out of my hands high into the sky then exploded in bright blue light covering the sky.

"That's new. Salem just what the hell is going on?" asked Morrigan.

"I-I have no idea." I mumbled as a large dome of the blue light passed through the whole city and beyond. 

Once it was over it began to float down to my hands and once the light died down the phone looked to have changed along with a pair of some really nice looking headphones. The phone than switched on automatically with a message on it reading.

' From Morpheus: Good job Salem. This is a conflagration gift. I hope you enjoy it.'

"Your boss?" asked Morrigan and I just nodded while just looking at the phone and headsets. " I wonder what little things he left for you in that thing. You should stop gate-keeping and introduce me to him someday~."

"Why do you always have to make it weird?" I gave her a deadpan look but something fell into the waters causing a huge splash. "The hell?"

Then three people floated towards the body being Harumi and Inari who looked to have taken a good amount of battle damage with Harumi looking worse than Inari with her clothes torn, bruised, bleeding and looked to have a broken arm. Inari looked to be a bit fine, only having torn clothes and slight bruises.

The final person was surprised though as it was that tall fully armoured guy I saw at Bellum who was part of the crystal scale guild though his get up was a little jacked up. Just what was he doing here?

Author note

Hey guys sorry it took so long to release this chapter. The funny thing is that it's been almost ready for 5 days now and just needed to add a few things here and there in fact but I'm held up with school and what not. I'm also having mid-semesters next week so I'll be gone for a while.

Hope you will be patient as the next chapter is the final one for this arc.

But like always don't be afraid to leave a comment on the story, giving me your honest thoughts and critisms as it helps me know which areas I can focus or improve on.